Backbone

 PlayStation 5
Backbone Image
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Backbone is a post-noir roleplaying detective adventure, in which you step into the shoes of raccoon private investigator, Howard Lotor, and explore dystopian Vancouver, BC, beautifully rendered in high resolution pixel art.

    After years of small-time cases, lonely evenings, and just barely    Backbone is a post-noir roleplaying detective adventure, in which you step into the shoes of raccoon private investigator, Howard Lotor, and explore dystopian Vancouver, BC, beautifully rendered in high resolution pixel art.

    After years of small-time cases, lonely evenings, and just barely scraping by, Howard Lotor is swept into a job quite unlike any other before it. What starts as a menial case slowly unravels into something much darker, pitting Howard against the oppressive, systemic power hierarchies of the City itself.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. PlayStation Universe
    Oct 31, 2021
    85
    Weird, unique and brilliantly designed, Backbone is a game like no other in 2021. The narrative is both mysterious and absorbing, the characters and dialogue are fun and it never overstays its welcome. I wish I was given a little more information in the second half of the game and the ending a bit more fleshed out but I was left wanting more. Backbone surprised me massively and I enjoyed it a lot.
  2. PlayStation Country
    Nov 15, 2021
    70
    Backbone is a fine debut from Egg Nut but hamstrung by a high price and a story that outright gallops to a conclusion, overwhelming any feeling of player agency you've built up by the third act of five. The price makes it difficult to outright recommend, but very much a firm foundation for Egg Nut to build on.
  3. PLAY
    Nov 17, 2021
    70
    It’s not a masterpiece, but Backbone is still worth your time – just make sure you go in with your expectations for the quality of its story held in check. [Issue#8, p.91]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Push Square
    Oct 27, 2021
    40
    We were enjoying the lowlife-detective-gets-in-way-over-his-head storyline, but it takes another turn later on into something decidedly more obscure. The final hour or two throw the whole story for a loop, and to make things worse, it feels as though none of the plot threads are resolved — you're just left hanging, probably with a furrowed brow, while the credits roll. It's a shame, as the music and visuals are excellent throughout, but the presentation just isn't enough on its own, and that's about all it has.
  5. TheSixthAxis
    Nov 24, 2021
    40
    Backbone had the potential to fill a bit of a void for a noir style game, but it comes up short. It opens with a strong prologue, but the story that follows tries to hit too many different themes meaning there's a lack of focus by the time it comes to a conclusion.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. onemorelevel_1
    Mar 5, 2022
    8
    BE A RACCOON
    Backbone is a post-noir narrative adventure. It’s released on all major consoles and PC. Backbone is inspired by film noir,    BE A RACCOON
    Backbone is a post-noir narrative adventure. It’s released on all major consoles and PC. Backbone is inspired by film noir, weird sci-fi, post-soviet aesthetics, modern political regimes, the works of Lynch and Kaufman, and existential philosophy of Sartre. This is my short review of the game.

    STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND GRAPHICS
    Backbone tells a story of a private detective Howard Lotor who explores dystopian Vancouver inhabited by animals. The story is linear and questioning your perception what it is to be a person. The story is deep and has few twist and turns.

    Backbone’s gameplay is focused on storytelling and rich dialogues inspired by old school CRPGs. The game is full of dialogues and by choosing your answers your shaping what kind of person Howard will be.

    Graphically Backbone looked extraoriginally good. The pixel-noir art style looked luscious. The game was not voice acted, which was OK. Controls were simple and worked just fine.

    LAST CASE
    Backbone was nice game, about 5 hours long. It had deep story and the storytelling was the main point of the whole game. The ending was little bit odd, probably because there might be sequel to this. I do recommend this to anyone who likes storydriven games.    … Expand
  2. Ekon
    Nov 26, 2021
    7
    The first three chapters are very good with the racoon detective doing a lot of grinding to get information on a missing husband who isThe first three chapters are very good with the racoon detective doing a lot of grinding to get information on a missing husband who is believed to be having an affair. It's really a lot of fun when he starts climbing fire escapes and sneaking into apartments. The plot takes a really strange turn when it's discovered that people are being butchered and sent to a science lab for experimentation. This strange development is too jarring to deal with and it makes no sense at all for the detective to keep pursuing this lead. The husband is dead. He should just tell the wife and be done with it, not trying to save the world by trying to figure out what a bunch of big shots are up to.… Expand

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